The Crown van Gelder Story
The challenge
Crown Van Gelder (CVG), based in The Netherlands, manufactures high-quality paper for the Printing industry. Much of the company’s selling activity takes place through merchants and distributors, and part of CVG’s challenge is to ensure that its channel partners are well-equipped to successfully sell its products. In late 2007 CVG was ready to launch its new range of Crown Digital papers, specially designed for use in digital printing machines. However, the technical requirements of digital printing differ widely from those of more traditional offset printing. CVG needed a sales tool that would quickly bring its partners up-to speed with the new technology, and enable channel salespeople to sell the customer benefits of CVG’s Crown Digital papers.
Action
CVG had a well-developed strategy, a communication plan and an enthusiastic team for Crown Digital. What was lacking was a mechanism to inform and energise partners’ salespeople to focus on selling the new range of papers. During his search for a suitable solution, Ad Sies, Product Manager Digital and responsible for CVG sales in UK, Ireland and Scandinavia, discovered Solutions for Sales (SfS) Sales Guides and Sales Briefs. These had been used very successfully for many years by major corporations in the Telecoms, IT and Energy industries to achieve the results CVG was looking for. Could the same approach be made to work in the Printing industry? Ad was willing to give it a try.
To gather and generate the information required for the Crown Digital Sales Brief, SfS ran a workshop at CVG’s offices at Velsen, near Amsterdam. Representatives from three of CVG’s key partners were in the workshop and played an active part in the SfS process. “The Printing industry tends to be very traditional,” explained Jos de Vries, CVG’s Marketing Manager, who has responsibility for co-ordinating new business development activities. “It was absolutely key that we involved our partners right from the start in the production and review of the Sales Brief. It was a way of ensuring their buy-in and commitment to what we are setting out to achieve.”
Results
The Sales Brief was ready within six weeks, in time for the Crown Digital European launch. As part of a briefing pack, which also includes a CD and paper samples, the Sales Brief is handed to partner salespeople following a presentation by Ad Sies and his team. In each major partner organisation there is now a Crown Digital “champion”, with responsibility for growing the partner’s sales of Crown Digital papers. CVG assists the partner champions in each territory by identifying prospects that have invested in digital printing technology. As Ad Sies reports: “The effect of this strategy has been huge. The Sales Brief has been very well received by all CVG’s partner organisations, and sales growth of the Crown Digital range is exceeding our planned targets.”
”For us the most important benefit of the Sales Brief is that in each territory it reinforces the key selling messages of our product launch and empowers our partner champions to act independently. This means that even though we have a small team for digital printing at CVG, we have been able to rapidly develop a large footprint and high profile in our target market. In this way the Crown Digital Sales Brief is helping us achieve real competitive advantage."
Ad Sies, Product Manager Digital, Crown Van Gelder
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